What is the cost of a dream?
For Cedric Coward, it was $25,000.
That’s how much he paid out of pocket, after academic scholarships and financial aid, to attend Willamette University in 2021.
“In hindsight,” said Kip Ioane, the man who recruited Coward to Willamette, “it’s insane that a kid that’s going be an NBA draft pick was paying thousands of dollars to go to college and play basketball.”
Ahem. A high NBA draft pick.
Because Coward, whose college journey included stints at Eastern Washington and Washington State, is experiencing the sharpest rise of any player in this draft class. A guy who was so impressive at the combine that he decided to forgo a transfer to Duke to take the NBA plunge. He has transformed from a likely second round pick, to a fringe first rounder to, now, a possible lottery pick.
“Watching his rise has been wild, but not surprising,” said former Willamette teammate Terry Sherman. “He’s always been locked in, even when people didn’t see it yet.”
One NBA talent evaluator said this week that the 21-year-old Coward could go anywhere from the 10th pick in the draft to No. 25. In certain mock drafts, he is projected to be selected as high as 10th. Portland, it should be noted, holds the No. 11 selection.
That scout called Coward a “prototypical forward for today’s game” with “high potential as a ‘3-and-D’ guy — maybe more.”
2025 NBA Draft Combine
Cedric Coward answers questions from reporters during media availability at the 2025 NBA Draft Combine at Wintrust Arena on May 14, 2025 in Chicago.Getty Images
And he started his career playing Division III basketball in the shadow of Oregon’s capitol.
Although “started” isn’t exactly the right word.
“I’m the idiot that didn’t even start him his first couple of weeks as a D-III player,” said Ioane, who was Willamette’s head coach from 2009-2023.
That’s because the private liberal arts school, with an undergraduate population of 1,571, has strict academic standards. Coward entered Willamette with a 3.8 grade point average in high school, but was late to turn in a paper early on and temporarily tanked one of his grades. In his first game with the Bearcats, Coward came off the bench to score 25 points and grab 13 rebounds in a loss to Corban University.
So how did a guy like that end up in Salem?
That’s the question NBA executives and scouts have been asking Ioane, now the varsity boys’ coach at South Salem High School, for the last year. Each time representatives of those teams — the Trail Blazers, the Timberwolves, the Thunder, the Nets, the Hornets, the Hawks, the rest — call, Ioane starts the story the same way.
“Always a pleasure to talk about Ced,” Ioane says.
At Fresno’s Central High, Coward was a two-time all-league selection and was twice the team’s captain. But Ioane said he wasn’t necessarily featured offensively and was primarily asked to rebound and rely on his athleticism.
The two-way ability that has scouts drooling was on display then. The crazy wingspan. The 3-point shooting. The defense. The point guard skills that are rare for a 6-foot-6 perimeter player.
But Coward didn’t play on a traveling club team. No AAU, where much of the high-level recruiting happens. So when Ioane first saw him play, he thought, “What do we got to do to keep this kid under the radar? Because if anybody sees him, we’ll lose him.”
That, of course, would prove to be inevitable. If Ioane thought he had a special player, that was confirmed in the third game of the Coward’s one season at Willamette, when the Bearcats played a preseason game against the University of Portland at the Chiles Center.
The D-III visitors were surprisingly hanging around, thanks mostly to the contributions of their freshman, who would finish the game with 24 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Willamette trailed by just nine at halftime. Before the start of the second half, a referee approached Ioane.
“You know you messed up, right?” the ref asked.
Ioane didn’t immediately follow.
“You shouldn’t have played ‘0’ in this game,” the ref said, referring to Coward’s jersey number. “He’s not coming back.”
When that story was relayed to Washington State coach David Riley this week, he laughed.
“That may be true,” Riley said. “I may not have seen him that first time.”
Maybe. Riley, the nephew of former Oregon State football coach Mike Riley, played D-III hoops himself at Whitworth University, a Northwest Conference rival of Willamette. Now 36, he always kept an eye on the league. And Coward was impossible to miss.
He averaged 19.5 points and 12 rebounds per game as a freshman at Willamette, earning him Northwest Conference Freshman of the Year. He set the school’s record for blocks in a season.
He integrated smoothly into the program, and became a favorite among teammates.
“I could tell stories for days,” said Sherman.
Like when Coward overslept and Ioane made him do defensive slides on the sky bridge over 12th Street on the Willamette campus.
“Most people would have made excuses,” Sherman said. “He just showed up and handled it. That’s Ced.”
Late in the year, Ioane made him the Bearcats’ point guard, and in a win at Puget Sound he posted a triple-double with 12 points, 12 boards and 11 assists.
“His feel for the game,” Ioane said, “is really special.”
Despite having a future NBA player on the roster, Willamette finished the season with a 6-18 record.
After a season-ending loss to the rival Linfield Wildcats, Coward asked Ioane if he could address the team in the locker room. He thanked the scout team players for their hard work all season long.
“We’re going to come back,” Coward said, “and we’re going to beat Linfield.”
But Coward wasn’t coming back. He couldn’t. Although, he told Ioane when he entered the transfer portal that if he didn’t get offers to play Division I, he would return to Willamette.
“Because,” he told his coach, “I really want to beat Linfield.”
Cedric Coward
Southern California forward Harrison Hornery (30) defends against Eastern Washington forward Cedric Coward (0) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)AP
In the spring of 2022, Riley had just completed his first season as the head coach at Eastern Washington. When Coward entered the portal, Riley reached out to Whitworth coach Damion Jablonski for his thoughts on potentially pursuing him.
“I don’t know how it all works,” Jablonski said. “I just know one thing: He shouldn’t be playing our level.”
Riley pounced. Even after Coward committed to Eastern Washington, he hosted recruits at Willamette while finishing the academic year.
In two seasons at EWU, Coward’s scoring jumped from 7.3 points to 15.4 points per game. As a junior, he shot 56.5% from the field and was a unanimous selection to the Big Sky All-Conference first team.
When Riley was hired before last season to coach at Washington State, Coward followed.
Riley realized he had a serious prospect on his hands last fall, when the LA Clippers sent general manager Trent Redden to Pullman to observe a Cougars’ practice.
Six games into the season, Coward suffered a partially torn labrum in his shoulder, sidelining him for the season. Before the injury, he averaged 17.7 points, 7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.7 blocks per game while shooting 40% from 3.
“NBA teams that were out here in the fall,” Riley said, “they saw what they needed to see. He was on track to have a hell of a year.”
In April, Coward re-entered the transfer portal. He committed to college basketball blue blood Duke while also declaring for the NBA Draft, giving himself the option to return to college for a final year if he did not like the feedback he got from NBA decision makers.
“Even when he was committing to Duke,” Ioane said, “it was surreal.”
Northwest Conference coaches reached out to their former colleague to say, “You see your guy?”
Ioane gamely replied, “Yeah, fellas. And somehow we didn’t beat you.”
After becoming the breakout star of the draft combine in Chicago, Coward announced he was staying in the draft.
But he has never forgotten his Division III roots.
In his first season at Eastern Washington, he provided tickets for Willamette coaches and players to attend the Eagles’ game at Portland State.
That same year, after Coward left Salem, the Bearcats did in fact beat Linfield, a 98-95 overtime thriller in McMinnville.
In the happy haze of that victory, Ioane heard some of his players celebrating.
“We won,” they said. “Just like Ced said we would.”
--Bill Oram is the sports columnist at The Oregonian/OregonLive.